Moodle News » helen foster

Moodle in over 100 languages!

Joseph Thibault — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 14:30:06 +0000

Helen Foster (@Moodlehelen) announced this recently and it’s great news for the worlds most widely used (and translated) LMS. With the addition of a few new language packs Moodle now supports over 100 languages! If you’re interested in creating a new language pack checkout the Translation documentation here: http://docs.moodle.org/22/en/Translation

Not all of the 100+ languages are 100% completed, but you can get a sense of progress by visiting http://download.moodle.org/langpack/2.0/.

Bonne chance, genießen, enjoy!

Moodle 2.2 Code Freeze: QA Testing starts soon

Joseph Thibault — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 13:00:49 +0000

Two announcements from Moodle HQ this weekend set the stage for Moodle 2.2′s pending December 1st release. The first announcement by Martin Dougiamas (@Moodler) mentioned that 2.2′s code will be frozen this weekend in efforts to focus on major bug issues and problems prior to the scheduled release in December. The 2nd announcement by Helen Foster (@Moodlehelen) was to announce the upcoming QA initiative to help ensure that Moodle’s next release is stable and bug free.

According to Martin’s post,

We’re busy here on 2.2! Starting today we are breaking the usual weekly integration cycle and moving into a continuous integration phase until the 2.2 release.

This week our very hard-working integration team of Eloy, Sam and Apu are (hopefully) landing the last big features for 2.2 from various sources before a code freeze this weekend (no new features after that). See MDL-30160 for the many new things in Moodle 2.2.

On Monday 14th we’ll have everyone working on our usual functional QA to make sure there are no major regressions, and fixing any bugs that we find along the way. Hopefully we should be all done in two weeks, and we can release on December 1 as promised.

For more information about Moodle 2.2 check out: http://www.moodlenews.com/tag/2-2/ or visit http://docs.moodle.org/dev/Roadmap#Version_2.2.

Go help test Moodle 2.1!

Joseph Thibault — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 13:30:06 +0000

Big news is coming from Moodle.org where it’s pending release of Moodle 2.1 is being tested by the community (right now and ongoing). 2.1 beta is currently available from both the Windows and Mac version download pages for your convenience (if you’re feeling adventurous) or you can join the testing crew at Moodle.org and check out all the new features and perform the tests at QA.moodle.net.

Moodle 2.1, which includes new features like activity cloning, the new test engine, some infrastructure for the Mobile App and perhaps most importantly 1.9 restore to 2.1 for course backups, is due out this July 1st. Check out the 2.1 docs for more information: http://docs.moodle.org/dev/Moodle_2.1_release_notes.

For more information on joining the testing squad and trying out Moodle 2.1 visit http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=177564

Can’t wait for #iMoot 2011? Get your kicks by listening to last year’s keynotes from @imootonline

Joseph Thibault — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 13:30:50 +0000

iMoot 2011 (@imootonline) is coming up at the end of April and it’s sure to be a great virtual event. In the meantime, you might get your fill on all things Moodle by listening to one of the presentations from last year (check out all of the archived presentations and keynotes from last year at http://2010.imoot.org/course/view.php?id=64).

My recommendation? Pick one of these 4 keynote/panel presentations which are all easily accessible through the embedded mp3 (or subscribe via iTunes and listen on a long run or trip to do some errands): http://2010.imoot.org/mod/podcast/view.php?id=1035.

Options include:

A panel of Moodle.com developers
Martin Dougiamas’ keynote which featured Moodle 2.0
Julian Ridden and Shane Elliot talking about pulling the 1st ever iMoot together
Helen Foster sharing stories from the Moodle community
Teresa Gibbison leading a panel of administrators discussing user and course management

Listen to them all!

Direct link: http://2010.imoot.org/mod/podcast/view.php?id=1035

Moodle HQ Developers Meeting Online (2am EST Nov 25th)

Joseph Thibault — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 14:30:52 +0000

Helen Foster (@Moodlehelen) recently announced that Moodle.org is hosting an online Developer’s Meeting early Thursday Morning.

Two very important agenda items are on the schedule: the looming migration from CVS to Git and the imminent release of Moodle 2.0.

http://docs.moodle.org/en/Developer_meeting_November_2010

What: Developer Meeting
When: 2am EST Thanksgiving Day (11/25/2010)
Where: Online via Elluminate

Unfortunately I’ll be dreaming of Turkey and resting up for the annual Turkey Trot in DC (but we’ll recap or post a link to the meeting notes as soon as they are available).

QA Cycle 2 and how you can lend a helping hand

Joseph Thibault — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 12:00:41 +0000

It takes a strong community to create a great open source product and it will take the whole community to check/re-check the nearly 200 tickets in this second round of QA. You can have a big impact in getting Moodle 2.0 ready for a stable, ready-for-the-masses-release.

Testing is easy, you’ll just need a few things:

An account at http://moodle.org and http://tracker.moodle.org
Access to the Moodle Demo site: http://qa.moodle.net/
Listing as a tester (connect with Helen Foster to receive this designation), more information at her call for testers.

Once you’ve lined those up, you can jump on the QA site, open the tracker ticket for the QA testing round 2 and have at it. Opening any of the tickets that are “open” will allow you to see more details and to comment once you’ve started testing. Even tackling 1 or 2 tickets could be a huge help in the long run.

QA Testing: http://docs.moodle.org/en/QA_testing
Call for testers: http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=158642#p694789
QA Cycle 2 ticket: http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDLQA-328
QA Testing site: http://qa.moodle.net/

Jason Cole’s “Using Moodle” book

Joseph Thibault — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 15:00:00 +0000

Following the back to school theme this week, here’s a free Moodle guide for teachers. While created for an earlier version of Moodle this still is perhaps one of the best (and certainly one of the most accessible) comprehensive Moodle reference guides.

http://docs.moodle.org/en/Using_Moodle_book

Written for O’Reilly Media in 2005 covering Moodle 1.4, this book and it’s subsequent update focuses on the essential skills and processes of using and creating a Moodle classroom. Jason Cole and Helen Foster co-authored the book which is available for purchase or free download: http://docs.moodle.org/en/Using_Moodle_book.

To view the second version (for Moodle v1.8) online visit Issuu, http://issuu.com/iusher/docs/usingmoodle2 or check it out embedded below:

Open publication – Free publishing – More book

The 11+ Moodle Twitterers you should be following

Joseph Thibault — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 12:00:52 +0000

Please note that this list is subjective, it’s not meant to be comprehensive or complete and there are a good many Twitterers all contributing to Moodle news not on this list (just watch the post titles). With the entire Moodle Twitter community things would be much more boring around here.

Follow the whole list at this link: http://twitter.com/josephthibault/moodlers

Twitter introduced a new feature last month which recommends users of like interest to you, http://twitter.com/invitations/suggestions. Deeper on that page though is “suggestions for you” based on categories. I won’t get into the fact that I’m disappointed in general that there is NO education category; which obviously leaves no room for top Moodlers. I thought Moodlers were the only ones that used Twitter! (jk) What I will do is share my own list of 10 or more Moodlers that are well worth a follow on Twitter.

Through them I’ve been challenged, have learned about great new Moodle initiatives and opportunities and have continued to learn.

So here they are, in no particular order:

Miguel Guhlin, @mguhlin: blogging, moderating, sharing all Moodle. His Twitter stream is an aggregate of the great information he shares on a daily basis all about Moodle. Check out Moodlemayhem.org or http://www.mguhlin.org/ for more information.
Julian Ridden, @moodleman: his playpen site is probably one of my most favorite play areas on the web [http://playpen.moodle.com.au/moodle/] and he’s a wealth of resources for what’s what in the Moodle development roadmap. More at http://www.moodleman.net/.
Helen Foster, @moodlehelen: Helen is the Moodle.org Community Manager, someone with her finger on the pulse of Moodle versions, extensions, modules and development. More at http://helenfoster.wordpress.com/.
Martin Dougiamas, @moodler: Founder and lead developer. Martin’s both accessible and professional. If you want to see his body of work and contributions, the best site is probably Moodle.org.
Moodlerooms, @moodlerooms: One of the largest, if not the largest Moodle Partners worldwide. Moodlerooms is a great source for the cutting edge of Partner services and products [http://moodlerooms.com].
Mary Cooch, @moodlefairy: Mary provides great tutorials and first looks at many of the new features; and that’s just in her spare time. Check out her school’s Moodle at http://vle.olchs.lancs.sch.uk/ and her http://www.moodleblog.org/.
MoodleFacts, @moodlefacts: This is a dutch Moodle news source which publishes a good many Moodle posts of interest. Plug the site into Google Translate and you’ll see what I mean [http://www.moodlefacts.nl/].
Mel Benson, @moodlerific: Mel’s experience in a large district in the US is a great source of information, posts and all things Moodle. Check out her blog at http://www.moodlerific.org/.
The MoodleMonkey, @moodlemonkey: The Monkey is Leeds City College‘s official voice (but to the benefit of all others it’s a nice aggregate of the quality information, posts and developing initiatives of Lewis Carr and Sukhwant Lota (@lewiscarr and @sukhwantlota, respectively)
Jon Fila, @moodleshare: Announcing the newest courses to hit the shared course site, http://courses.moodleshare.com, this account is a great resource for the newest courses available for download.
Tomaz Lasic, @edumoodle and @lasic: the Human behind the great posts at http://tomazlasic.net/ Tomaz is a great source of anecdotal Moodle successes. As a user himself in educational settings, he’s recently joined Moodle HQ to help showcase/promote exemplary Moodle use in schools. Edumoodle is the main voice of http://school.demo.moodle.net and the demonstrations of solid pedagogy at Moodle Demo sites.

There are loads of other worthy Moodlers to follow on Twitter (and you should seek them out). If you’re interested in contributing to the ongoing conversation, just include #Moodle in your Moodle focused posts and you’re sure to attract some attention from the community.

Additionally there are several official Moodle Twitter accounts for Security, Modules, Themes and others, more information is available at Helen Foster’s blog: http://helenfoster.wordpress.com/.

Happy Birthday Moodle (and @Moodler) via @Moodlehelen

Joseph Thibault — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 14:00:43 +0000

It’s 8 years old today, August 19th.

A long and fruitful road. Here’s to many more years!

Check out Helen Foster’s post for some more details on the history of Moodle, http://helenfoster.wordpress.com/
Send in your wishes at http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=156255

Moodle 2.0 Release day +1 (Delay update)

Joseph Thibault — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 12:00:37 +0000

You may have noticed that it’s now July 21st and despite the information listed on the Moodle 2.0 Roadmap at Moodle.org, the long awaited Moodle 2.0 has not been released. Originally there were upwards of 8 Preview Releases scheduled, but after only four Martin Dougiamas updated the community with a call for QA testers in order to release the software on time as “Release Candidate 1″ or “RC1″,

If all goes well, it’s looking like we should be able to hit a usable and feature-complete state for Moodle 2.0 in a couple of weeks, around July 20. You can follow the the main blockers in the tracker to see progress towards this. Unfortunately, I don’t think we can call that a final release yet, because the testing period for much of it has not been long enough, so at this point we’ll call it Moodle 2.0 Release Candidate 1 (RC1). [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=153815]

So unless you’re using a Preview Release or are planning to adopt the RC1, the wait will be a little longer. Why? For the sake of quality; which is a good thing.

For information on helping with the QA Cycle 1 check out our previous post or Helen Foster’s call to QA at Moodle.org: http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=153814

http://docs.moodle.org/en/Moodle_2.0_release_notes